Hairdressers are more creative than artists

Lockdown is extended in Germany. Barbers will be allowed to open a little earlier than other businesses. The preferential treatment of hair saloons is a government reaction to curb the black market. I wish there would also be a black market for theatres, libraries, museums, cinemas and galleries. Obviously, hairdressers are more creative than artists when it comes to bending the rules in their interest. Scissors are sold out also. They are the new toilet paper. Of course, I would not break the law to get a haircut. So I will fly to Malta to get a hair cut there. Problem solved. I like travelling during a crisis time because all the amateurs are out of the game. Finally, travel is an adventure again. And at the same time, even a public plane has the space of a private jet.

Out with Eddie in Hundsrück.

Germany is also nice, sunny but chilling cold, with -13°C at night and 0C at max. The best thing to do, besides a bit of “home office” (a term I have not fully understood yet), is to go out, look at the garden and stroll around in the forest. This spring will be a transition, not just from winter to summer, but also from closed to open, I guess. The vaccination’s start in Germany was shaped by production shortages. Slower than expected, the curve is picking up. Interesting to see, was also, how our political system “worked”. It is deliberately designed in a decentral manner, where the provinces can veto and overrule federal decisions. This is, of course, a very good way to cater decisions to the local situation and also avoid “one crazy guy in Berlin” can flip the whole country into a disaster, as we learned tragically from experience. But now, the “crazy guys” are not in Berlin, but clearly in some of the provincial governments. Or perhaps better to put it, is not “crazy”, but just incompetent and interested in catering for their political career by catering into their electoral base. They blocked a proper lockdown before Christmas, and that’s why 2021 started in a mess. Now luckily, it got a little better, but with the new virus mutations spreading (faster), it does not look like we are out of the woods yet.

Carbon footprint and the Covid-19 endgame

Finally, I found an easy way to offset my carbon footprint: I bought a forest. This is a quite a simplification, compared to the accounting hassle you have with commercial carbon trading for every poo. And it also comes handy in the context of social distancing.

Watching the Covid-19 endgame in Germany now, some of my compatriots are quite a disgrace for humankind after the Enlightenment. Among others, we have a movement called "Querdenker", indicating that the direction of their thoughts is lateral to the mainstream. To me, it appears that their thinking has no direction at all. And also, the length of the thought vector is very small. It must be a tough job for a democratic government to be the intermediate between science and these "citizens." Mostly, it is holding up well, but there are also weird debates on loosening the contact limitations over Christmas etc. They must have found a way to negotiate a cease-fire with the virus during these days.

Luckily, I brought a few Covid-19 Antigen-Tests from Hong Kong. To my surprise, they are not available for general retail in Germany. In Wanchai you can pick them up at the cashout at Watsons, between the chewing gums and the condoms. Made in Korea.

Even my own life is relatively untouched by the restrictions, of course, I do miss a few things also: the museums, the library and even our Anne Sophie Mutter concert in Frankfurt Alte Oper has been cancelled. I hope this year does not damage the cultural landscape permanently. But I assume until mid next year, things will pick up again and we can assess the damage.

The first snow was falling a few days ago. Eddie is a spring dog and has never seen this. But of course, even he is not a sled dog; he knows Iditarod and the great race in Alaska where dogs and mushers raced to deliver serum to an isolated settlement with a diphtheria outbreak. I told him. I wish our American friends would have kept a bit of this spirit, instead of what we have to observe today. When people don’t work together, luckily, we can always count on our dogs.

I am not clear yet which model to apply for assessing the CO2 absorbtion capacity of these trees. I only found numbers for pines, but not oaks, which have the seasonality in dropping leaves in winter and other differences in parameters.

Eddie following ths call of the wild in Taunus.

Beyond midtime quarantine in Hong Kong

Another 6 days of 14 to stay in quarantine. It is not dull, but I do start missing to move around. Gymnastics is not the same as being outside or at least running up a staircase. But all this is not allowed. All I can do is open the window for a bit. Joints and muscles seem to ache more when you don’t use them. Nothing serious, just uncomfortable. Otherwise, I go with my days quite disciplined. I slept in the first day, as a result of jetlag and the hilarious journey. But the rest of the time, I am preparing material in the morning and then read in the afternoon. In the evenings, I listen to audiobooks. Now, it is Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. Before it was Max Frisch’s Homo Faber and Montauk. Audiobooks I find a good way to recapture on the common literature body. But I would feel strange to listen to a book, I never read before. I also tried some American nonfiction. Even though the books may be good, narrators with American accents talk very straight into your face. Then I tried a female American narrator, and it was like listening to Amy Coney Barrett’s pressing voice.

I am now down to one meal a day and rarely get hungry. Even I exercise, I need no energy at all above the base metabolism. For that, I made a choice of restaurants registered on Foodpanda. It works great. The driver delivers to the reception and the concierge will make sure it arrives quickly. I don’t have a microwave to heat things up. So, speed is essential. Then the bell rings; I put on my mask and Lisa, a middle-aged lady from South East Asia, has put my package on a little chair outside my door. Sometimes, I chat a few sentences with Lisa, who is very friendly. She takes care of at least a whole floor of quarantines, like me. This is my only human-human interaction. Then I get a call once a day, where I report my body temperature. Even with my laptop, I am very “connected”, I avoid private “Zoom calls”. I had a few calls work related to Tilburg University. But that’s it. I am quite lucky in this situation, that I am more of an introverted character. I can imagine for somebody extroverted, it must be hell.

I have a huge can of Nestle instant coffee. That was not a good choice. A friend made me aware of Aeropress. That looks like a handy piece of equipment, and I will get one for sure once I am out.

Tomorrow morning, I have to submit another specimen and submit it to a lab in Wanchai. For that, I booked a delivery service online. Let’s see how it goes. Only after confirmation of my negative COVID-19 test will I be released on Sunday, October 18th. Even though this is not pleasant for me, SARs 2 - COVID-19 is even less pleasant for others. I heard from friends, what it means to get it. And, seems not everybody has the immune response of the current US president. Whatever that story was. So, I instead keep a low viral footprint.

I am running my computer models to understand the spread of the epidemic. Some decades ago, I had the idea to use these models in marketing and treat it like a “disease”. These were interesting consulting projects in the 1990s. But rather than showing you my raw Pascal code, I recommend looking at the models merged below by Grant Sanderson, who also has a website I follow regularly: https://www.3blue1brown.com/

A ray of sunshine in quarantine: German organic apple juice.

The new normal

Lecturing in the Master of International Management at Tilburg University was in "Hybrid mode". It went well, but the campus looked like Minsk in the days after Chernobyl - wiped out, barely any students, no faculty, no chatting and discussions off the plan. Some already call this the “new normal”. Education has become more efficient. It’s good when it comes to admin and collaboration, but bad when it cuts out the discourse. In the long run, efficiency makes stupid. That’s why I hope the real new makes this distinction and keeps a better balance.

We were still lucky that we had on-campus seminars. And even the logistic efforts weaved around the security measures were daunting, it was worth it. I think we made good progress and got to know each other quite well. The last sessions, though, I had to move online, as Nordholland and Südholland were declared Covid-19 risk zones by Germany. Tilburg is in Nord Brabant, so not in any of these provinces. But given that I am about to travel to Hong Kong, and the situation and rules can change quickly, I decided to retreat into Germany and minimize movement.

Even it was different this year, my Tilburg engagement was a pleasure, as always. Students were very co-operative, and I can see over time a constant improvement. Also, the Financial Times Ranking of the programme went up. With a global rank of 49th, the program is now 2nd in The Netherlands. It was ranked 89th in 2017 and 57th in 2019. That's all good news. But still, the learning experience for the students resembles more that of inmates that enrolled at an "Open University" to prepare for life after they served their sentence. One even had two Erasmus exchanges, only to be locked up in an apartment in two countries different from his home.

The rest of the time, besides some research and developing advisory work on the "One Belt, One Road Initiative", it has been quiet and sunny autumn. And there is a new Business Case in the pipeline on the bankruptcy of "Vapiano", a restaurant chain, which will be published by the Asian Case Research Centre (ACRC) soon.

Besides doing some new things, I also stopped doing some others. For example, I stopped following the news on the US. America is such a waste of time. So is the UK. I was just wondering recently, whether these American journalists, politicians and commentators, really have these voices, or this is just a technical distortion by the Internet. If not, perhaps a more potent nasal decongestion spray may help. Or how about reducing vocal air pressure? I always have the impression that they don't breathe naturally, but are ventilated from behind by a compressor through the anus. That would also explain why they talk quite some shit. Anyway, that's other people's problem.

Now I am heading for Hong Kong. All is packed, and formalities are done. I will start my time there with two weeks quarantine, locking myself in a hotel room, being supplied by food delivery services and books on my Kindle. Let's see how that will go. Of course, nobody who enjoys being outdoors likes being contained in such a way. But it will be also interesting, how the body and mind respond to solitary confinement.

Hard to believe it is already October, given this marvellous weather. But this hedgehog I found reminded me that winter is coming. It’s too small to survive a normal winter, so it is prepped up with a mix of butter, oats and minced meat.

Lessons learned from Covid 19

I have been dealing with this Covid-19 virus since I flew from London to Hong Kong on February 1st this year. From this moment onward all started falling apart to an extend I also did not anticipate. As I have six weeks headstart with this virus compared with the Western world, let me sum up what I learned so far. 

1. Science matters. Exponential growth is what it is. And Covid-19 is a virus, not a ghost. Especially in the early days of infections in Hong Kong, it was not clear what we were up against. This gave room to a lot of speculation, rumours, conspiracy theories and tales. I am not on social media, so most of it I have not even seen. But I heard some of the sprays. I was very impressed when a Finnish company at the end of February told me that they ran the numbers and decided not to have visitors on their production campus until the end of June. Actually, why can a telecom equipment manufacturer do that, while the WHO was meandering around confusing people? My first source of information was actually the WHO at the beginning. Next time, I know better. I will ask Nokia.

2. Study statistics and stop blaming. After the virus broke out in Wuhan, people mistrusted the reported numbers. Yes, you always have to distrust numbers. Especially when you can't test, have reporting inaccuracies, time lags, cross dependencies in underlying conditions etc. Measuring is hard. It's not that the Chinese can't count. Trust me, they can count far better than most others. You need assumptions and standards which have to be developed on the job. That includes errors and inconsistencies naturally. 

3. Stop using the terms "Human rights" and "Freedom" as a deterrent. And it's not "Chinese dictatorship" to confine people at home and limit travel when there is a disease outbreak. Quarantine is a proven method to stop a disease from spreading. Real "dictators" actually don't care about quarantine. They only care about themselves. Of course, we have to defend personal rights and freedom as much as it is possible. But liberty ends where the freedom of others is reduced significantly. Yes, you have the freedom to lick the toilet bowl. But then stay at home, don't infect others and don't turn up blocking hospital spaces.

4. Staying healthy is a civil duty. Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to say that "the world needs you, so we want you to be healthy". Let me get this straight: the world does not need you, and it does not care. What I do mean is that your lifestyle choices should not result in clogging up emergency capacity. For example, in the case of Covid-19-SARS2, it is evident from Chinese and Italian data that for example, smokers are eight times more likely to end up on a ventilator in an emergency room and they have significantly higher mortality. Can anybody explain why there are still people smoking and tobacco companies are still allowed selling while at the same time, the world is scrambling to produce enough ICU ventilators? The same applies to other lifestyle choices. For example, obesity does does not just rhyme on stupidity. Perhaps for those who need this, a campaign like “Fasting for victory” will help.

5. It is worth the economic impact. The whole discussion, whether it's worth tanking the US economy to "save 2.5 % of the population, which is anyway unproductive" is more than cynical. It would be genocide. Just do the math, if you can: with 330 million Americans that are more than 8 million dead. Just as a comparison, the US lost around 0.5 million in World War II. So, when Trump sees himself like a "Wartime President", it may be that he means he is at war with his own people. That's new for America. They usually are at war with others to distract from their own problems. Boris Johnson at least still infected himself, bragging that he was shaking hands with Covid-19 patients just a while ago. He also wanted a steep gamble on the lives by inducing herd immunity. I thought "mad cow disease" was overcome. Perhaps Boris had a steak too much back then. Wishing him good health.

6. The world is not on holiday. Things work relatively smoothly and structures are still there. It’s not only the supermarket cashier, nurse, bus driver, train conductor, policeman which are all still working to keep things running. It’s also millions who take things back home and into their own (disinfected) hands. I find the sense of community and level of cooperation at this time really amazing. This will also change the way we work and lead in the future, I am sure. Of course, there are also a few who may have trouble getting out of the bed, getting dressed and hang in their loungewear all day checking the “Life updates” online “informing themselves”. But they would have been lazy in the office also. There it’s just easier to look busy. Just call a meeting or do a workshop.

The only thing, I am personally missing are the museums, concerts and libraries. Even travelling I don’t miss much, having gone through quite a bit of travel chaos recently. I was never really fond of eating out, as I prefer cooking myself. Shopping I despise and I enjoy the cities empty. I also like that manners matter again, people keep their distance and are more kind and tolerant. The virus does not distinguish between race and social status. I know many want to go “back to normal” as soon as possible. I don’t want. It should not be called “social distancing” anyway, because it is just doing the opposite. Real social distancing is what we had before.

Face masks back then, pleague time (Source: Public Domain)

Not quite the case

Over the years I was the subject of a few business cases, and also found it useful to build up an own stock of such cases for my teaching in postgraduate business programmes and Executive Education. The case method goes back to the law school of Harvard University where it was introduced in the 1870s. The approach to derive common principles from cases in a system where case law in place, appears reasonable. In 1920 the Harvard Business School introduced cases as a method to train management students. Normally, to “crack it” the students have to put themselves into the shoes of a business leader and derive a suggestion for action, using the information given in the text and also applying a framework or “theory”.

Especially, in cases where I was the subject myself, like in “Shanghai Volkswagen: Time for a radical shift or gears” (2005) it strikes me how oversimplified the students propose their suggestions. Sometimes, when I google on the web, I find sample solutions and interpretations which really make me laugh. For example one was praising my strategic foresight of a decisions, while in reality it was 3 in the morning in a meeting room and I wanted to get my team to get some sleep before the board meeting on the same day.

Also, the in cases, which I published myself with colleague I can well imagine what really went on in the manager’s mind and this had far more dimensions than we can state in this format. And I can imagine, most other case have the same issue, specially those written by pure academics who never actually decided anything of substance. There is normally more than one solution, the situation is more complex than stated in the case and the information is given, is not sufficient to come up with a real proposal which would work outside the textbook.

There was some critique to the case method, that there should be more of a philosophical undercurrent included in decision making, for example by Donham and Whitehead in Business Adrift. Also, in 2016 a paper by Todd Bridgman, Stephen Cummings, and Colm McLaughlin is "Restating the Case: How Revisiting the Development of the Case Method Can Help Us Think Differently About the Future of the Business School". And of course Minzberg commented critical and others. Still the Harvard style machine kept running.

I use cases only for introductory purposes and to have some “lab environment” of an isolated problem. That’s useful, but not sufficient. After that, I immediately switch to real-life examples, where finding and analyzing information available and useful is part of the assignment. I was never a big supporter of frameworks anyway and I honestly have never seen any complex problem, which can be solved by for example by a blabla-Matrix. It may help to structure initial thoughts or communicate with people who have been trained in the same jargon. But it’s unlikely to deliver an intelligent and holistic solution.

I find business problems extremely interesting to solve. But cocking by the book does not appear to me being the golden bullet, specially when you look at the books the management profession has. I fully agree that learning by doing and dealing with real-life problems is a good element in business education. But is that really what we are doing with these cases? It looks pretty 1920s type of analysis to me. And “doing”? What do you mean? A presentation is not the kind of “doing” I normally experience.

Anyway, now I have to think about a teaching note for a new case which will be published soon. They always come as a package. I am always a bit puzzled when Professors need teaching notes. But they come as a package. It’s a bit like you need a recipe to make a pizza. Hope they grow quickly into cooking gourmet meals. Don’t slide into hot dog. Enjoy.

From the sketchbook of my mind: The launch of the Santana 3000 in 2005 and the many other things which became the “Shanghai Volkswagen Case”. I really like this one, but of course there is much more to it than ever has been written.

Memento mori

Cemetraries are some of my favorite “hangouts”. They provide solitude, good perspective on many aspects of life, memories, tell stories and also say a lot about the local culture by how people treat their ancestors. Military graveyards additionally remind us of the nonsense and horrors of war. There is many of all this on the Capuccini Naval Cemetary. But what is special for me, is that here lies Henry Ernst Wild who survived the Shackleton expedition and then died of typhoid in Malta.

Capuccini Naval Cemetary, Kalkara (Malta)

Asshole Management

Asshole Management is an art form by which subjects are neutralized effectively, while resources employed in this process are kept minimal. Here “a person counts as an asshole when, and only when, he systematically allows himself to enjoy special advantages in interpersonal relations out of an entrenched sense of entitlement that immunizes him against the complaints of other people” (James, Aaron. Assholes: A Theory (pp. 4-5). Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Kindle Edition).

From this, we can already conclude that assholes cannot be ignored, because then they expand. They further cannot be educated, as they do not follow logic or moral arguments. Should an asshole recognize you as somebody who can provide any kind of advantages to him, you can also not walk away, as the asshole will follow. Assholes need to be dealt with.

There are a few ways to deal with them effectively. Counterintuitively, it needs to encourage them to become even bigger assholes. You can achieve that, by giving them the sense that they are actually entitled to even more. Then let him engage with a second asshole, who objects to that entitlement. We call this, the anti-asshole. If managed well, the two assholes will engage in a personal war. The energy released in such asshole-anti-asshole reaction may be quite high so that it is recommended to contain it in a confined physical and social space. In the end, it is a process of asshole fusion and is better kept in a safe reactor. Make sure all resources assholes need, are available in the reactor. But the reaction should also not be too efficient, because we need both of them to melt down in the process. Residual assholes, which did not burn down completely, will have to be treated as toxic waste.

If you run short of anti-assholes in your environment, there is a second strategy: catalyze the asshole’s energy towards self-destruction. Again this needs encouragement and making the asshole believe, he is capable to perform things which he truly is not. An asshole which really believes he is above the law, biology, and physics is a quite vulnerable creature. The asshole will self accelerate fueled by arrogance, greed, adrenalin, and testosterone. But if it bounces randomly against close obstacles, it may not reach fatal speed. It needs undisturbed egocentricity to maximize the speed before a clearly defined impact. You need to pave the runway to hell. Again, the energy released when assholes hit the target zone, may be quite high and should be evacuated.

There are different kinds of assholes, which need slightly adjusted management. But there is one asshole sub-species, which is extremely hard to deal with. It’s the “victim asshole” (VA), which pretends to be disadvantaged to achieve advantages. The first problem here is, to discriminate between people who really need our help and VAs. I have been thinking about VA quick tests, but none of them had significant results. More research is needed here.

Forbidden clothes

I find it appalling that in the 21st century some governments outlaw certain kinds of apparel, namely types of Muslim women’s clothes. Even the argument that it would be a symbol of oppression, I can only partly follow. At least, the veiled Muslim women I know: should it be oppression, they would be the first ones taking it off. Some do, some don’t. The other argument is, that disguise threatens public security. The late Peter Scholl-Latour, the Middle East Expert, even said that Burkas should be banned, because even a man could hide in them. I am not sure what made men in women’s clothes more dangerous to Peter, but I am sure he spoke from rich experience. It may have caused him surprises at some point. And then there is Boris Johnson, recently appealing to his ale drinking electoral base, making jokes that such women look like letter boxes. It’s too easy to counter that by making jokes about Neanderthals, Boris. Looked into a mirror recently? Hahaha! How I love this British humour. 

Unfortunately, it’s not just men with homophobia and dumb humour, but today I also had to witness some English women making depreciating comments on Muslim women’s looks who were wearing Hijabs. Given that they were clearly sitting in the glasshouse throwing stones, when it comes to beauty and style, I could not help seeking clarification.

It went about like this:

“Sorry, but from the Muslim ladies I know, they are not just well dressed, elegant, graceful and take good care of details; but they are also educated, interested, speak 5 languages and play chess. By contrary, from the English women I know, there are some but not many who have these qualities combined. So, ‘be the change you want to see’ – and sorry, for quoting Gandhi to educate English people. This may hurt your superiority feelings."

… (some vulgar response) ...

You remember who Gandhi was, right?

…  (some incorrect response, followed by the attempt to be funny) ...

No, he was not a naked man with diapers and a turban … Why don’t you have look in the Encyclopedia Britannica?

…. (confused attempt to change the subject) ...

"Oh, you are from Manchester? Then look him up on YouTube. Gandhi not Gandy … ah, enjoy your holidays … good luck, ladies!”

The long shadow of Anton Siegmund

Anton rarely talked much. But when he spoke to me, his words were brutal and secretive. He stood above the law, did not respect concepts like governments, and if you wanted to come closer than 3 meters, you needed a visa. He was a one man country, in which he tolerated his family and close allies only. All he was up to, was to defend this country - whatever it takes - absolutely, whatever it takes. He lead his family on the refugee track from Eastern Prussia, to the Soviet Occupied Zone of Germany, then further to West Germany. He wanted to continue to Canada, but then aborted the idea. He lost three children, and fought on the Eastern front. Anton Siegmund was my grandfather. And I believe, he was not what we like to think he was. I think he was worse.

Anton Siegmund with his Trakehner horses

Recently, I made the suggestion to bring my mother to her birth place in Voigsdorf, close to Rösel (now Poland), not far from Kaliningrad (back then Königsberg, now Russia). I received stiff opposition from all my mother's family to my idea, not because of my mother's weak health, but I was told: "It is not what it was". Of course, I respect that and vented the idea that I go myself and take a photo of my mother's birth house. And the response echoed: "It is not, what it was". This made me think, that it may have never been what "it was" in their minds. It is not uncommon for refugees to exaggerate their origin, and not uncommon for Germans to blur their Nazi past.

Anton had gaps, when talking about what he did in Russia. Sometimes, he was making jokes about dead Russian soldiers, and was mocking the wives and loved ones on the photos he found in their rucksacks, when he was searching them for food. He told about loosing his horse, but just being able to grab his rifle from the animal, and that nothing else matters than a gun, ammunition, water and food. And of course, for me as a teenager back then, he was a hero, and independent mind, who knew what is important in life, a rebel and all what the perceived "looser generation" of our parents were not. As a matter of fact, my parent's generation rebuilt this county after my grandparent's generation destroyed it. Then of course, all my aunts echoed the stories of Anton deliberately missing women and children with his gunfire, and being rescued by his Polish workers from the Russian military tribunal because he treated his workers so well. Well, maybe not. I remember that once in a delusion, he asked me to put his household helper in chains, as a punishment for a bad haircut. Anton was handicapend by a bullet wound in the right shoulder. But he was an exceptionally strong man. His stubborness  was sometimes interpreted as some kind of wisdom. I think it was dementia which brought him closer to the truth. He told me, that I have to be a good boy, otherwise he will have to stay in hell for the rest of eternity. He made me promise, to get him out of there by being a good person. I promised. Of course I did. I love my grandpa. Anton kept being the undisputed patriarch of the family until his last breath and beyond. 

I decided to go this summer in June to the house my mother was born, and try to close the circle of a long story. Anton Siegmund, had a long shadow over two generations. It was a cold shadow, with sharp edges. And it may have rescued his family. But it blocked the sunshine for far too many years.

"Management theory is becoming a compendium of dead ideas"

This week's Economist gives a compelling comment to the guru business in management, by drawing the parallel to the reformation of the Catholic Church. Obviously management education also gets its part of criticism. No surprise. But to be fair, the "theories" quoted here, and those often taught, are not theories. Or does anybody seriously believes in Porter's Five Forces? Or thinks that SWOT-Analysis is an analysis? Or Blue Ocean Strategy is a strategy? The "World is Flat"? Big Data? Not even to talk about the mantras of people like Jack Welch and newly also the Donald Trumps? Leadership! The Art of the Deal? Think Big and Kick Ass. Come on! That's just story telling. Nobody with a brain takes this serious. It is just picking a few handy things out and putting them into a framework, or developing an ideology around them. Like "competitive theory", which already mutated into an ideology long ago. Or "entrepreneurship" which is a cult. It is just meant to sell a few ideas to a boarder audience. Nothing serious. Just a reality show. Not reality. Think of it like of Santa Claus. Nice story, specially at this time of the year. That's it. The rest is just a different costume: one is red, the other one gray or navy blue.

But there is a lot of serious work done to understand the mechanisms of businesses and markets better. It is just not done by Santa Claus in a suit. People work on this and do come to meaningful conclusions. And then there is the "academic research" which is often used as a synonym for "useless". My observation is, that this is because often academics in this field, choose research questions which give them a quick paper in a journal with a high "impact factor". We know the game, right? We know what "impact" this impact factor has. 

But this does not mean to abolish the scientific method, common sense, evidence, math. What I always found interesting is that in the practice of natural sciences, we try to strip down complexity to bare fundamental principles. By contrast, "management theory" tries to cover up weak fundamentals by a big narrative body. 

I was often thinking, why these guys don't go deeper. From the few I have met, I have an impression: because they can't. Not smart enough. The second reason, maybe that they are not really interested. They are happy with some fame, and then they start to believe in themselves. Reform needed, or to put it in church terms: Reformation. But again, it is more who we listen to, than what to believe in.